Presidential Election of 1848: A Resource Guide

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the presidential election of 1848, including broadsides, prints, political cartoons, sheet music, newspaper articles, and government documents. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential election of 1848 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1848 election and a selected bibliography.

For most of the nineteenth century Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music.

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets.

This collection presents 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics.

The PAE is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress and provides information about the Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other materials.

Includes the following sheet music from the 1848 presidential election:

The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project Web site provides histories of the presidential campaigns from 1840-1860, as well as primary source material, such as campaign biographies and campaign songbooks. Recordings of some of the songs are also available.

Selected Bibliography

Primary Sources: Campaign Literature

Allowances and Extra Pay. A Plain Statement of Facts from the Record, Showing Gen. Taylor to have Received $74,864.04 of "Allowances," Besides His Regular Pay. Washington, D.C.: Published under the authority of the National and Jackson Democratic Association Committee, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

An Answer to the Charge Against Gen. Taylor and His Friends, of Opposition to Naturalized Citizens, and Hospitility to Catholics. Washington, D.C.: Fenton, 1848 [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

The Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, Held at Baltimore, May 22, 1848. Washington: Printed at the office of Blair & Rives, 1848. [Catalog Record]

A Sketch of the Life and Public Services of General Zachary Taylor, the People’s Candidate for the Presidency, with Considerations in Favor of his Election. Washington, D.C.: Printed by J.T. Towers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]